“Ex-soldiers & old tires”

Lots of people write to me to pitch their products, and often they claim to be regular readers of Consumed. Very few of them, however, say that they are writing from Addis Ababa. So I was at least a little curious to get a note from Kiru Alemu, who wrote to “introduce my firm, soleRebels. Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, soleRebels, produces the finest artisan-crafted footwear that use nothing but artisan-crafted & eco-sensible materials in their creation.”

It was a really long email, but that sounded interesting-ish, so I continued. When the note transitioned into the products’ background/creation story, and I hit the part about he company “using two things the country has plenty of that are otherwise going to waste: ex-soldiers & old tires,” I finally concluded that this was, in fact, something a little different. A few bits of the email:

In Africa (and in fact throughout the world) simple folks and rebel armies (like Ho Chi Minh’s guys) alike have worn a basic sandal made from discarded tires and rubber. Why? Because they’re comfortable, durable, economical, effective, resourceful — all qualities that are damn good, both for us and for the planet. (Plus they’re damn slip resistant, which, I suppose, is good when you’re climbing around the mountains trying to stage a successful rebel assault …. ) Here in Ethiopia, recycling things is a way of life; in fact we’ve been recycling for years without ever calling it recycling. When you have limited resources everything is valued and valuable, everything has a purpose. Even if it’s not the original purpose it was intended for….

So we re-imagined the traditional selate shoe (tire shoe) in a dynamic new fashion. Combining the expertise of several traditional Ethiopian artisan areas — from hand spinning and hand looming cotton, to footwear hand crafting — we married these with a unique modern sensibility…. We started looking around for some ex-soldiers who had been injured, were recovering, and wanted to work. Finding plenty of disabled ex-soldiers was NOT hard at all. (Sad to say, ex-soldiers, particularly in Africa, are often injured and/or otherwise what employers call un-employable). Once the word got out about what we were doing, we didn’t need to find them anymore. They found us. And it just rolled from there….

Today soleRebels provides work for over 50 men and women, many of whom are disabled or veterans of one or another conflict, or persons who otherwise have limited prospects for employment and yet who, as you can see from the products they make, are incredibly talented and skilled.

So far, the email said, the primary consumers have been American and European tourists traveling in Ethiopia. But: “In May, we will be shipping our first US retailer, Urban Outfitters…. This will be the first time any Ethiopian firm has shipped footwear to the United States, and the first time an Ethiopian firm has shipped DIRECT (no middleman) to a major US retailer.”

I would say that this is pretty much fascinating. The Consumed column, of course, is only concerned with things that are actually on the market and being, you know, consumed. So for now I can’t do anything with this in the column, but if they do well, who knows? Meanwhile, I thought this was different enough to pass along to you, the loyal Murketing reader. (Not as an endorsement, since I don’t endorse much of anything, but as something worth keeping an eye on. And of course if you have thoughts or comments on any of this, I’d love to hear it.) I look forward to seeing these shoes actually hit the market, and how they sell.

Further email exchanges with the incredibly nice Kiru Alemu yieleded a catalog and a number of images of the shoes, which you see above. The company doesn’t have a web site, and I’m not in a position to fact check any of the above in any direct way. On the other hand, I don’t have any particular reason to doubt it. And it’s certainly the most intriguing bit of unsolicited product email that’s come over the transom in quite some time.

Some sort of update will follow in the summer months, when the shoes are on the market.